What is the value of conservation?

One of the most important contemporary issues facing conservators is the effect of the economic crisis and cost cutting on conservation as a whole. AIC members must continually defend their work and answer questions posed by funding agencies and sponsors, local, state, and national governments, the general public, and even many museums themselves. One of the main questions is, “What is the value of conservation?”, or rephrased and posed by a   ===funding agency or sponsor, “What is the value for our agency to (continue to) fund conservation?”

In order to help you to answer this question, we have organized a so-called Socratic dialogue on this question on the final day of the conference. A Socratic dialogue is a structured form of dialogue in which all participants actively contribute. We will work in a number of small groups in order to critically investigate each other’s opinions and answers to the question, and our concerns when we are asked about and have to talk about the value of conservation. The Socratic dialogue does not specifically answer the question of what the value of conservation is. More importantly, the dialogue will help the participants understand what the essence of the question is, and what is behind their notions of value and conservation, so that they can better formulate arguments for their specific situations to convince people to continue to support conservation efforts. 

Everyone has a voice in the Socratic dialogue. All AIC meeting participants are invited and encouraged to attend (on a first come - first served basis). It promises to be an excellent learning experience, and an ideal counterpart to the following Great Debate. A summary of the dialogue will be e-mailed to the participants and others who are interested.

Volunteer assistants requested:

If you have experience with Socratic dialogues and would be interested in both participating and assisting with the moderation of the dialogue, please contact me at b.wei@cultureelerfgoed.nl . You are of course, welcome to contact me for other questions as well.

By Bill Wei, Coordinator - Legal Issues in Conservation Working Group at ICOM-CC

Amsterdam Area, Netherlands

LinkedIn 9-5-2013

 What is the value of conservation? Reminds me of the question "What is the point of History". Many Nations who have reduced freedom of thought and action are in a hurry to abolish, deny or alter their history along with the supporting evidence of their past. So above all aesthetic considerations the preservation of evidence of cultural history, is a hedge against over weaning politics and politicians.

By Elizabeth Holford, Painting Conservator at Elizabeth Holford Associates Ltd

United Kingdom

 

 You all may be aware that some countries are full of all sorts of Cultural Heritages, 'Tangible and Intangible' both. INDIA also is one among them. These Contries have still never given 'Full Priorities' to Conservation and Preservation, what to talk about in this this "Time of Recession". 

I agree with the comment 'What is so Important about History? if we can not 

Conserve Historical object'.... 

The heritage objects are the most important and most relavant factors for the EXACT Study of Culture, History and Continuety of Society..... 

'If we say that there is no need for Conservation then it will definitely imply that there is NO NEED of a Informed, Educated and CULTURED SOCIETY'. Can we imagine to afford such a situation??

By Dr. Sunil Upadhyay